James Franco Roast on Comedy Central Premieres to 3.1 Million

It draws a combined 5.2 million for two airings Monday, well up from Roseanne Barr's last year

Comedy Central’s roast of actor James Franco drew a solid 3.1 million viewers for its premiere airing Monday night, according to Nielsen, and 5.2 million combined for its two showings.

The roast, taped last month in Los Angeles and featuring Seth Rogen as roast master, hit a bull’s eye in the 18-49 demo, drawing 2.4 million viewers — or roughly 77% of its overall audience — in that age range. In other demos, it drew 1.9 million adults 18-34 and 1.2 million men 18-34.

In all categories, the “Comedy Central Roast of James Franco” was up sharply over the network’s roast of Roseanne Barr a year ago, including 30% in adults 18-49 and 64% in men 18-34. Still, it didn’t come close to the Comedy Central roast of Charlie Sheen in September 2011, which averaged 6.43 million viewers for its premiere.

The Franco roast was big on social media last night, becoming the most social show on television Monday with more than 334,000 mentions and 13 roast-related trending topics, according to Trendrr.

In addition to Rogen, others having fun at Franco’s expense included Jonah Hill, Aziz Ansari, Bill Hader and Sarah Silverman.